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Kenny kens kenning

A list of 121 words by sionnach.

About

Kenning: a stock phrase of the kind used in Old Norse and Old English verse as a poetic circumlocution in place of a more familiar word. Examples are banhus (bonehouse) for ‘body’, and saewudu (sea‐wood) for ‘ship’. Similar metaphoric compounds appear in colloquial speech, e.g. fire‐water for ‘whisky’. A famous Shakespearean example is the beast with two backs for ‘copulation’.

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  • trivet commented on the list kenny-kens-kenning

    *favorites*

    October 28, 2008

  • chained_bear commented on the list kenny-kens-kenning

    Ooh, these are really cool.

    October 28, 2008

  • bilby commented on the list kenny-kens-kenning

    Yep.

    October 28, 2008

  • sionnach commented on the list kenny-kens-kenning

    The steed of Aegir's daughters travelled the swan road.

    It went where the glory of the elves turns red.

    There the feeder of the eagle sought Roman grain,

    Sif's hair, the serpents lair.

    Battle dew sprinkled over the breaker of rings,

    While the tree-breaker howled,

    Giant-slayer crushed the skull of trolls.

    Battle's horse fed on the raven's harvest,

    Cold and blue in winter's raiment

    The stars of his brow no longer twinkled.

    Instead of Kraki's seed he had found the flame farewell,

    And now feasts in the hall of the hanged one...

    ****************************************************

    The ship travelled the sea.

    It went where the sun turns red.

    There the warrior sought gold,

    treasure, loot.

    Blood sprinkled over the king,

    While the wind howled,

    There was thunder.

    A wolf fed on the corpse,

    Cold and blue in the snow

    His eyes no longer twinkled.

    Instead of gold he had found death,

    And now is in Valhalla

    from kennings poem

    October 28, 2008

  • yarb commented on the list kenny-kens-kenning

    Belly timber.

    October 31, 2008

  • chained_bear commented on the list kenny-kens-kenning

    I still love this list!

    November 7, 2008

  • madmouth commented on the list kenny-kens-kenning

    seeing as bend down boutique is being discussed of late...

    June 17, 2009

  • rolig commented on the list kenny-kens-kenning

    The word for bear in the Slavic languages – medved – is in fact a "kenning". Bears, it seems, were sacred animals to the Slavs, who therefore did not dare pronounce the name for "bear", and instead used the phrase "knower of honey" ("med" = "honey", "ved" = "one who knows"). An English cognate might be meadwit.

    Edit: See Qroqqa's apt correction. The proper kenning would be honey-eater.

    June 17, 2009

  • qroqqa commented on the list kenny-kens-kenning

    Honey-eater, actually: medv-ed rather than med-ved. (I'd never been 100% sure of this so I checked again just now.)

    June 17, 2009

  • rolig commented on the list kenny-kens-kenning

    You're right, Qroqqa! Thanks! I should have checked with Marko Stroj's Slovene Etym. Dict. first.

    June 17, 2009

  • madmouth commented on the list kenny-kens-kenning

    it's medvjed in SBC, which shows the 'eat' section of the compound more clearly

    June 18, 2009

  • sionnach commented on the list kenny-kens-kenning

    Note: the annotation "per Borges" on some of the more recent entries on this list indicates that they are taken from Borges's 1933 essay "Las kenningar". Translations (from the Spanish), and any resulting errors, are mine.

    September 12, 2009